Clockwork
by LoudAutomata16
Summary: Lincoln's quiet time is disturbed by a visitor from another world...


**I had a bit of writer's block today when I tried to write for another one of my stories, so I decided to do a one shot based on an idea that's been stewing in my head for a while. I wanted to save this prompt for a multi chapter fic, but then I realized I could just gage people's reactions to see what I can change or improve for when/if I write a multi chapter thing.**

* * *

In a life as chaotic as his, Lincoln enjoyed taking every moment of calm he could get. Sometimes it would be when he read his comics in his room. Sometimes it would be when he sat on the couch and opened up an old save on his video games.

This time, it was on a small bench in Ketcham Park at night. A broken light post flickered above the young man's head as he stretched his arms along the length of the wooden bench post, and lay his head back to look up at the stars.

He smiled softly as he gazed up into the sky. People often referred to space as the final frontier, but for the past week or so, Lincoln knew that wasn't the truth. There were other frontiers, beyond the starry night sky everyone saw.

There were other skies, and other stars.

In other universes.

"Maybe it's my fault," he caught himself saying, taking a breath to dwell on the matter rather than stop himself, "Maybe I should have told her not to mess with something that… unknown. She couldn't have known, she was just a curious little girl. Where's my sci fi movie knowledge when you need it?" he chuckled slightly to himself, though he was more annoyed than amused.

Of course, it wasn't completely bad. He realized that he was living an exciting life that most people could only dream of having. Hell, he used to dream the same thing. But, of course, dreams and realities are two very different things. And he knew for a fact that some of his sisters weren't happy with how things turned out…

Still, they all did what had to be done. He did what had to be done. And now was a good time to get to work, he realized, as he felt a slight tingle go through his mind.

One of them had shown up.

Lucy referred to them as 'fairie folk.' Lisa preferred the more scientific term of 'ultraterrestrials.' Lori called them 'monsters,' to keep it simple, but Lincoln felt that wasn't fair. Some of them weren't that fair off from humans, and some of them weren't even too dangerous and evil. So the subject of a term for these beings was now one of the many things the Louds fought over, but everyone knew what they were; alien beings from other universes, popping into their own.

And a weird feeling in Lincoln's head only meant that one of them had shown up.

He was kinda hoping one of his sisters would deal with it, because he felt rather tired, but a sense of responsibility forced him from his seat, a loud groan exiting him as he did.

"Alright, let's see what we got. Ooh, maybe it'll be ghosts. I've always wanted to go ghost hunting like they do on ARGGH!...

"… and maybe I should take this a little more seriously," he said to himself with a sheepish smile, before taking off in the direction he felt the disturbance coming from...

* * *

Cristina felt like kicking herself for staying out too late. Royal Woods wasn't as safe as it had once been, and even back then it was never a good idea to stay out too late. Sure, getting kidnapped was one in a hundred, but that statistic didn't really help you when you were the one.

She turned the corner on her block, breathing in slight yet heavy breaths, as the only sound that she could hear were her own footsteps, reverberating across the street. She calmed a little when she saw her own home, though cursing under her breath as she saw the lights were still on.

Her parents were going to be pi- _hissed._

She could already hear her father screaming at her, his face going red, lecturing her about the recent rash of crimes and disturbances that had befallen their town, her mother supporting him, the mechanical sound of clock loudly ticking behind her bursting through her ear drums…

Wait, what?

It was then that Cristina noticed the large shadow cast over her, and it was then that she made the worst possible move; she stopped. Dead in her tracks.

Paralyzed with fear.

 _Tick, tock._ She heard from behind her head, and the young girl stood stunned, as she realized what a huge mistake she just made.

 _Tick, tock._ She saw the shadow approach her, and tried to will herself to run as fast as she could towards her home. But a strong wave of fear and nausea overtook her.

 _Tick, tock._ The unnatural sound came closer and closer, and since she couldn't move, Cristina instead turned around, to gaze at whatever was approaching, and her eyes, on the verge of tearing up from terror, widened at the sight…

It looked like a man, but it was… wrong, in a way. The motions were jerky and stiff, as if it had trouble with its joints. The figure's head was wrapped with a darkly colored wig and a mask. But what stood out to the young girl most was… the sound. Those horrible _tick, tock_ noises. Cristina had never been one for supernatural conclusions, but something about the figure triggered something deep within her… an inherent, subconscious feeling that humans were not alone…

But regardless of whether the hulking figure was human or not, Cristina knew she was in danger. She opened her mouth to scream…

"Aw, I thought there was going to be something cool here. And all I end up with is a literal grandfather clock."

Both Cristina and the figure turn in the direction of the voice, and they both see the source; a young white haired boy, dressed in orange and blue, approaching with a confident smirk on his face. "You know, those trash talking lessons with Lynn really seem to work out. I… I was really proud of that one," he said with a happy beam, taking away from the coolness factor he clearly wanted to set.

His eyes hardened, though, as he studied his opponent. His eyes went up and down the being, and he heard himself growl. "I recognize your build… I've had to deal with at least two of you last month. You're from my brothers' world, aren't you? That place where every boy was a girl and every girl was a boy."

 _What is he going on about?_ Cristina thought.

"Well, I'm going to have to send you back then," Lincoln said, slamming his fist into his open palm like Lynn taught him to. He may have done it too hard, though, as he felt a stinging sensation, but he did his best not to let it show.

The figure was now seemingly interested in Lincoln, turning away from Cristina and paying full attention to the young white haired boy. It may have been her imagination, but the _tick tocks_ coming from the figure seemed a bit more threatening than the first few ones.

Before anyone could react, the figures burst across the street with inhuman speed, its fist drawn back as it prepared to strike Lincoln. Lincoln lost his balance for a second, due to shock…

 _They weren't this fast before. He must've built better models._

… but he quickly regained his composure and drew his own clenched fist back. The two met in the middle, strong air blowing at the point of impact. So strong, it knocked the mask and wig off, and what Cristina saw was something more fit to a pulp novel than real life…

No skin, but glass. Clear glass. And inside was a mess of gears and clockwork, as golden as an antique grandfather clock's insides. She noticed the insides moving in a specific pattern, and as the hand of one of the clocks spun quickly, it made that horrible _tick tock_ sound.

 _How… how is this even possible?_ Cristina thought to herself.

As she dwelled on her disbelief, Lincoln jumped back from the mechanical being, and dodging another quick strike before undercutting the being's glass face. The glass was hard, but still it cracked slightly under his strength, causing Lincoln to bleed at the knuckles, but he didn't care.

"When the multiverse starting threatening our city," Lincoln explained as he swung his arm again, punching the robot's face so hard it staggered, "Lisa gave me two things; the ability to sniff you guys out…"

The being ducked, and jabbed Lincoln hard in the stomach with its shoulder, but Lincoln barely flinched. The inhuman creature looked up at him, as if confused, at which point Lincoln revealed his second gift from his little sister; "… and super strength."

He drew his leg back and kicked the being's dome as hard as he could, and was happy to see it shatter into a million pieces. The gears and mechanisms inside spilled out like organs, as the clockwork being fell to the ground, completely motionless. Lincoln looked down at his fallen foe, and leaned in to say something. His mind wanted him to say something like "You were a worthy foe."

But his mouth blurted out; "My foot really hurts!"

The eleven year old fell over, clutching his foot and repeating "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow…" over and over. He lifted it towards the sky and clenched his teeth. "Dang it. Does he have to make their heads so hard?"

And it was at that point he opened his eyes and noticed… her.

Cristina.

A soft blush broke onto his cheeks, and he gave the girl an embarrassed smile. "Oh… hey Cristina…"

That was the point when Cristina decided to run off. Lincoln could only watch as she raced down the block, and realized that he probably should leave. The young boy sighed, grabbing as many parts of the machine that he could manage, before leaving the neighborhood. By the time Cristina had alerted her parents, and they the rest of the block, very little remained, save for a few shards of glass and a small bronze gear.

* * *

It took him a while to reach the Loud House, but when he did, Lincoln intended to make his way towards Lisa's room, the automated parts still in his hands. He made his way up the stairs as quickly as he could, before knocking the door to Lisa and Lily's room down with his foot. Unfortunately, super strength ensured that the noise was more loud than he intended. He cringed as he looked at Lily, who stared at him with teary eyes and a whimper, before she started crying.

"Oh, Lily, I'm sorry," he said, gently setting the machine parts down by the side of the door. Lisa looked at him with annoyance.

"Dear elder brother, I spent an extended period of time encouraging our sister to get her REM sleep. Thank you for behaving like a baboon and waking her up."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, okay?" Lincoln said as he rocked the baby as gently and softly as he could. He indicated the deactivated robot parts with his head. "By the way, you got a present from your rival."

Lisa's eyes wandered over to the pieces of the machine, and a scowl grew on her face. "Of course. Doesn't he ever get tired of sending these over?"

"I guess not," Lincoln said, smiling sweetly down at his baby sister, as the baby slowly stopped crying. She looked at him with wide eyes, before finally giggling and extending her arms towards him, trying to grab his face.

"Well… thank you, Lincoln. For taking care of this ultraterrestrial."

"It's what I do. By myself," he muttered sarcastically.

"Our sisters were occupied elsewhere, dear brother. Other matters to deal with."

"I wouldn't call being at the mall 'other matters.'"

The young scientist smirked at his response, and descended from her stool. She walked over to her brother and, without warning, wrapped her arms around him.

"There. Does this make it worth it?" she said with a touch of humor in her tone, though Lincoln could tell she was trying to mask her sincerity.

"Yeah. It kinda does."

"Good," she said, slowly unraveling her hands from her brother. She looked back at the half broken pieces Lincoln had splattered across her room, "I think we should send these ones back home. To their owner. My rival."

Lincoln squinted. "Let's."

* * *

Lars sat in the attic, writing a few stanzas of poetry. He chomped on his pencil slightly, staring at the blank page before him. If there was anything he hated, it was blank pages. A blank page meant infinite possibilities. Naturally, one of those possibilities should manifest itself onto his paper. And yet... the opposite happened. Nothing will appear until limits are set, young Lars realized in slight frustration.

"Sigh. Maybe I can get inspired by something exciting happening right now."

As he said that, a green portal appeared before him, and Lars ducked as pieces of scrap metal flew out of it. One particularly large gear fell right in front of the boy's feet, and young Lars noticed it had a yellow notepad page taped onto it. The Goth boy removed it from the gear and opened it up.

 _ **Keep your toys out of our world.**_

"Sigh," said Lars…

"… I can't believe my clockwork mechanisms failed again."

* * *

 **The reason I chose clockpunk robots (aside from them being cool) is because their alternate name is… automaton ;)**

 **And the reason why I chose Lars as Lisa's rival and not Levi… well, if super science works in the normal world, how about magic working in the genderbent world? My thought process is weird like that:P**

 **Well, whether this stays as a one-shot or expands into a multi-chapter thing, I hope you enjoyed. I got other stuff going on/planned, so I wanted to test the waters first before I tried something like this. Looking back over this, I can see it has problems, but hey, half the reason I wrote this was to get something down.**


End file.
